Arnett, Bulldogs hoping for a better October

At times on Saturday night, Mississippi State showed small flashes of improving on both sides of the ball. Then those normal Alabama nightmares showed up right before the end of the first half.

After a Mike Wright 15-yard touchdown run closed the deficit to 17-10, Alabama’s Jase McClellan scored from two yards out to cap a 75-yard drive and the Tide pushed their lead to 24-10. But they were not done.

Mississippi State quarterback Will Rogers threw an untimely interception on the very next offensive play. Jalen Milroe notched his second rushing touchdown of the half and just like that, Alabama held a commanding 31-10 advantage. From down one score to trailing by 21 points in just a matter of 77 seconds.

“We give up a long touchdown drive,” commented head coach Zach Arnett. “You’re not gonna beat a whole lot of good football teams when you give up a touchdown, and then you have an opportunity for a two-minute drill, and you throw an interception on the first play and give them a short field. Poor job of game management by the coach. Should have taken a knee, come out after halftime down 14 instead of going down 21. Poor job by the head coach.”

Also in the first half, Chris Braswell returned a Rogers’ interception 28 yards to give the Tide a quick 14-0 lead late in the first quarter. Meanwhile, State had the opportunity to recover two Alabama fumbles in the opening half but did not come away with the ball.

“Turnovers are critical to this game,” Arnett added. “They are gigantic momentum-shifting plays. I don’t know if the punt got ruled a fumble or not. They said they came away with it at the bottom of the pile. Their guy kicks a phenomenal punt that checks up at the 1. It’s not ideal to start a drive inside the 1. We get a nice punt, the guys cover it, and I think it was a fumble. Then they had that botched snap on miscommunication.”

Once again, State’s pass defense was poor on the few times Alabama opted to throw the ball. In all, Monroe threw 12 passes and completed 10 of those. Then on the ground, State’s run defense was slashed for the second straight game, allowing the Tide to get 193 yards on the ground. And many of those yards came on first down to make things easier for the Tide on second and third down.

“We’ve got to stop the run better,” said Arnett. “They’re big and physical. Their game plan was to run on first and second down, play action pass off that, and drop back in third down situations. They were able to stay on schedule most of the time. We got them in some third and longs. We knew coming in when they saw our depth issues up front it was going to lead to further 12 personnel, running the football. We knew it would determine this game. We can’t put as many big guys out there to match their big guys. That’s how it works.”

State was shorthanded on defense as injuries have piled up in recent weeks, especially on the front line. WIth De’Monte Russell out on Saturday, his younger brother Donterry did step to the challenge and finished with 2.5 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks.

“Honestly, next man up mentality, always,” said senior safety Shawn Preston, who had seven tackles and one tackle for loss. “We take pride in the work we put in and our backups take pride in that, too.

“We want to stop the run and make plays in the pass game. Obviously, we did not do that tonight. I am going to go back and look at it. We will definitey be ready next week.”

With September’s schedule concluding against Alabama, the Bulldogs now find themselves 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the SEC. In October, Arnett said there must be improvement and better execution.

“We played five games in September,” mentioned Arnett. “We’re 2-3. The only thing we’re focused on starting tomorrow is October. We’ve got three games in the month of October. We need to go 3-0 in October. That’s the only thing we’re focused on right now. Prepare for the next game. And we have an opportunity to play a quality football team, hopefully execute better, and win. You’re not very happy in this sport when you lose. Feel better? Better win.”

And for the players, there also need to be some soul searching between now and next Saturday’s game against Western Michigan.

“Me personally, the biggest thing I’ve been pushing on our team is your ‘why’,” added Preston. “Every time you step on that field, think about why you are here. Think about why you are playing and who is going to make you proud.

“It is definitely in us. We just have to bring it out, period. We have to come out swinging and playing that Mississippi State defensive football, we can compete with anybody. We just have to come with that mentality week in and week out.”